Wednesday, November 3, 2010

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TekTrak Offers A Cheap Way To Make Sure You Never Lose Your iPhone Top
The drawback of owning a smartphone that holds all of your apps, photos, music and more is the possibility that you may lose the device. With all of the information and content iPhones hold, it can be frustrating to lose the device in one fell swoop. There are a number of apps and services, such as Find My Phone and Apple’s MobileMe , that will help track your iPhone’s location if the device is lost. Today, TekTrak is entering the mix with its app that allows you to track the GPS of an iPhone remotely from any web browser. TekTrak offers its location-tracking app for $4.99, in the Apple App Store. The App’s functionality is fairly simple: it allows an iPhone's owner to access their device’s location information in realtime from a browser. You can access all the location history of your phone (i.e. where it was and when); and the app runs in the background. You can also remotely ring or send push notifications to your phone. TekTrak tries to tackle the pain of battery drain by running in the background and allowing users to check location at predetermined time intervals. TekTrak’s main competitor is Apple, which can be a challenge, but its app is fairly affordable compared to a MobileMe subscription which hovers around $99 per year. CrunchBase Information TekTrak Information provided by CrunchBase
 
ICO In The UK: Google Street View's Personal Data Represents 'Significant Breach' Top
Man, another day, another " Google in privacy uproar" story. I guess my name is Phil Connors. The UK Information Commissioner has said that yes, in fact, Google did commit a "significant breach" of the Data Privacy Act when it collected people’s private information with its Street View vehicles. Great, so what happens now? Read More
 
comScore: Android Continues To Close In On Apple, RIM Top
comScore has released its monthly smartphone mobile report today and like last month’s data, Android is continuing its assault on Apple and RIM’s share of users. The data, which measured smartphone usage from June until September of this year, showed that 58.7 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during period, up 15 percent from the preceding three month period ending in June. comScore says that the Android platform now reaches more than 1 in 5 U.S. smartphone subscribers. RIM was the leading mobile smartphone platform in the U.S. with 37.3 percent share of U.S. smartphone subscribers (down 2.6 percent from the previous period), followed by Apple with 24.3 percent share (which didn’t rise or fall from the previous period). But Google continued to gain ground rising 6.5 percentage points to capture 21.4 percent of smartphone subscribers. Microsoft accounted for 10.0 percent of smartphone subscribers, while Palm rounded out the top five with 4.2 percent. In terms of device manufacturers, Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 23.5 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, up 0.7 percentage points from the three month period ending in June. LG ranked second with 21.1 percent share, followed by Motorola (18.4 percent share), RIM (9.3 percent share, up 0.5 percentage points) and Nokia (7.4 percent share). Mobile phone owners continue to use their phones for more than just texting or calling contact. Browsers were used by 35.1 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 2.2 percentage points) and users who used downloaded applications comprised 33.1 percent of the mobile audience, representing an increase of 2.5 percent. And 23.2 percent of users visited social networking sites or blogs, an increase of 1.8 percent. The percentage of users playing games and and listening to music also increased slightly. Android’s steady ascent as a go-to smartphone platform seems to be an accepted fact by now and the surprise at data showing this trend is beginning to wear off. Everyday there’s a new study or report showing that Android is eating away at the share that RIM and Apple held in the smartphone market. Yesterday, Nielsen data indicated that for the past six months, in Android devices were the most popular choice for new smartphone purchases. On Monday, Canalys reported that total shipments of Android phones in the U.S. during the third quarter were nearly twice as large as iPhone shipments. CrunchBase Information comScore Information provided by CrunchBase
 
AOL's Armstrong: "Google And Facebook Are Taking Share In Display Advertising" Top
Everybody knows that Google and Facebook are killing it in online display advertising. Google recently announced that it is on track to generate $2.5 billion a year in display advertising revenues, and Facebook is doing about $2 billion , mostly from display. This new competition worries AOL CEO Tim Armstrong more than competition from Yahoo, which he didn’t even mention by name. At the tail end of today’s third quarter earnings call he noted: AOL's approach is to be competitive with Google and Facebook. We are are not focused on being competitive with people further down the chain. Facebook and Google are taking share in display advertising right now. It doesn't mean we cannot take share either. Before AOL (which is our new parent company ) can take market share, however, it needs to start growing again. In the third quarter, overall total advertising revenues (search and display) declined 27 percent, with the display portion down 14 percent. Its annualized revenue for display advertising is less than $1 billion (about $775 million if you count display advertising on AOL properties and third-party networks). AOL is still very much in transition, winding down international operations and unprofitable traffic distribution deals. The 24 percent drop-off in access subscribers is also placing downward pressure on advertising revenues since they account for many of those clicks. “AOL is not a great investment for short term quarter over quarter returns,” Armstrong warns. Instead he’s trying to set it up for a long-term turnaround. His strategy is simple: better quality content combined with an aggressive ad sales force. Part of that will require going after core audience segments which are especially appealing to advertisers. Armstrong explained AOL’s content strategy by revealing his 80-80-80 rule. Women account for 80 percent of domestic purchases, 80 percent of purchases are done locally, and 80 percent of purchases are influenced in some way by “influencer crowds.” So expect to see AOL acquire or develop a lot more content targeted at “women, local, and influencers.” Hence, the focus on celebrity news and parenting ( PopEater and ParentDish ), local news ( Patch ), and tech blogs (Engadget and TechCrunch). Patch added 133 local sites in the quarter, well on its way to 500 . There is definitely pent-up demand for online display advertising. Now, AOL has to go get it before Facebook and Google gobble it all up.
 
Madlibs For Pitches: How To Perfect The One Sentence Pitch Top
You’re the founder of a fledgling startup locked in a room with angel investor Ron Conway for exactly 30 seconds, what do you say? If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you fumble for the words to succinctly describe your startup in a sentence or two. That seems simple enough, what could go wrong in under a minute? According to the Founder Institute’s Adeo Ressi : a lot. When it comes to the one sentence pitch, Ressi says “Most entrepreneurs manage to screw it up… How much better would the world be if every startup could explain their business well in one sentence?” To help entrepreneurs perfect the art of the micro pitch, he’s created a rudimentary template in Madlibs style: My company, __ (insert name of company) __, is developing __ (a defined offering) __ to help __ (a defined audience) __ __ (solve a problem) __ with __ (secret sauce) __. According to Ressi, “most entrepreneurs add useless adjectives, define their audience too vaguely and have a weak value proposition with no secret sauce.” He says articulate entrepreneurs are specific, avoid buzzwords, can adroitly describe the market and target consumer and, in the space of one sentence, even hint at a revenue model. (See video above, where Ressi breaks down each component in under five minutes.) Given the high probability of a brief encounter with a major investor in Silicon Valley, Ressi’s madlib tool is helpful for any young entrepreneur. However, beyond the obvious real world application value, it’s also a fun exercise to help you focus your formal pitch and understand how you want to articulate your business. If you would like to learn more about the Founder Institute or would like to join their program, the deadline to apply for the Bay Area and Houston locations is November 7. The Founder Institute is also hosting free pitch workshops, “Ideation Bootcamps” in Seattle on November 10 and in Palo Alto, this Friday, November 5. You can sign up here . Bonus Footage: To further prepare for the real world, watch Adeo rip on four elevator pitches in under two minutes: CrunchBase Information Adeo Ressi Founder Institute Information provided by CrunchBase
 
How To Try 4.2 On Your iPad Right Now Top
The iOS 4.2 Gold Master for all iOS devices is floating around along with iTunes 10.1, the only version of iTunes that supports the new version. What does this mean? It means you can try the new iOS 4.2 on your iPad today, as we speak, and, if you’re anything like me, you’ll be extremely happy. 4.2 adds real multi-tasking and folders to the iPad, two features that make the device truly shine. I spent an hour yesterday just dragging little icons into each other to organize my extensive Crush the Castle clone collection (including Angry Birds ). The update also adds a better keyboard and a few other tweaks that make the iPad really hum. You can also wait a few days to get the real update, but there’s no sport in it. Read more…
 
Federated Media Acquires Online Group Management Tool BigTent Top
Digital media and advertising company Federated Media Publishing has acquired BigTent , a platform that enables local school, community and other shared-interest groups to connect online. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Federated Media acquired BigTent for its reach within a well-defined target audience: moms. The media company says more than 8 million moms engage with its authors, and Federated Media President and COO Deanna Brown says the combination with BigTent’s platform for trusted parenting groups will give marketers a “powerful new way to reach the most valuable consumers online”. Federated Media says BigTent's thousands of groups will continue to function as before, and that new groups are welcome to sign up. BigTent gives each group its own private social networking environment in addition to a set of related tools. BigTent says it primarily hosts parent groups, PTAs, schools, neighborhood groups, scouting troops, hobby clubs, alumni associations and other community groups nationwide. The purchase of BigTent follows Federated Media's recent expansion of its ability to reach parents online through a partnership with the Clever Girls Collective and the acquisition of semantic-search technology from TextDigger . BigTent has raised $5 million in funding from Menlo Ventures and Mohr Davidow Ventures . CrunchBase Information BigTent Design Federated Media Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Conduit Reports Stats And Groupon App – Microsoft Acquisition Rumors Come Extra Top
Conduit , the VC-backed company that enables publishers to create and distribute apps on the Web via browser toolbars, is sharing some stats with the world today ( as they’ve done before ). The startup says it currently powers apps for a network of over 260,000 web publishers, including Mochi Media and Justin.tv , enabling it to reach a potential audience of some 200 million users via its Conduit Network. The company adds that Conduit-powered apps have increased in user adoption, on average, by 69% each month during the past 12 months. Social commerce sensation Groupon is taking part in Conduit’s PR blitz with the announcement of a brand new Groupon Browser App , which notifies Groupon users, regardless of where they are on the Web, when new local deals are available (US customers only for now). Meanwhile, and timed perfectly, an Israeli publication claims Microsoft is looking to acquire Conduit for a reported $300 million, citing sources. We’re digging to find out more about the alleged acquisition talks between Microsoft and the company, but I daresay the timing of the rumormongering is a tad suspicious. A spokesperson for Conduit tells me there’s simply “no truth to the rumor”, and Microsoft informed the Israeli reporter who published the rumor that it wouldn’t comment on speculation. Still, Conduit is reportedly profitable and good for some $100 million in revenues (it has an agreement with Google in place), so combined with the distribution power it is so aptly touting this morning, it might indeed make for an interesting acquisition target. We’ll update if and when we learn more. CrunchBase Information conduit Microsoft Groupon Information provided by CrunchBase
 
AOL's Third Quarter: Revenues Drop 26 Percent, Profit Surges (Slides) Top
Our new corporate overlords (that would be AOL ) have just released their Q3 earnings report , and it’s a mixed bag. Total revenues for the quarter were down 26 percent, from $763.9 million to $563.5 million, in the previous year. This slightly tops Wall Street expectations of $557 million. Profit, meanwhile, surged thanks to cost-cutting and the gains on the sales of ICQ and its Kayak investment. Net income increased to $171.6 million, or $1.60 per share, from $74.0 million or $0.70 per share last year. (We reported on AOL’s Q2 2010 earnings here if you would like to compare). Advertising revenue fell 27 percent to $292.8 million on declines in search, display and third-party ads, AOL reported. Subscription revenue dropped 26 percent to $244.8 million. AOL says it spent $97 million on, well, us , 5Min Media and Thing Labs , and that it could spend up to $23 million more on earnouts/retention bonuses over the next three years. A couple of days ago, the company announced that it sold buildings and land on its Dulles campus, netting it $144.5 million in cash. Below are the earnings slides for the quarter. View this document on Scribd CrunchBase Information AOL Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Flash Sales Site For Indian Fashion Exclusively.in Raises $2.8 Million From Accel Top
I’m a big fan of members only flash sales sites; which take a Gilt-like model to sell high-end clothing, hotel rooms, home goods and more at 50 to 70 percent off retail prices. So when decided to try out Exclusively.In, a members-only shopping site for fashion, jewelry and home decor from Indian artisans and designers I was intrigued to see if a niche-site could draw a fair amount of traffic from a broader audience. It looks like Accel seems to think so—Exclusively.In has just raised $2.8 million from both Accel Partners and Helion Venture Partners. The site features high-end traditional Indian apparel as well as more modern, Indian-inspired clothing. And the startup includes scarves, jewelry, handbags, crafts, paintings, photography and other home goods made by Indian designers. Since Exclusively.In’s launch June, the company’s co-founder and CEO Sunjay Guleria says the site has experienced strong demand from a broad base of consumers, not just the Indian diaspora, as “Indian-infused” fashion and decorations go mainstream. While Guleria declined to name how many members the site has, he did say that over 65 percent of its members make repeat purchases with the average purchase hovering around $250 ion the site. Currently Exclusively.In ships orders directly from India to the U.S., but will eventually expand to Canada, the U.K. and India in early 2011. The site is also looking to expand to other verticals, such as travel. Over the past few months, Exclusively.in has featured deals from the Taj Hotel Group for the company’s hotels all over the world. It’s certainly interesting to see that niche flash sales sites like Exclusively.In are growing and finding a loyal userbase, and a vote of confidence from well-known investors. Gilt’s revenue was expected to reach close to $500 million this year, so even as a niche site, Exclusively.In could pull in decent sales. Or it could be a possible acquisition target. One thing is for sure. My wallet is a little lighter after my visit to the site. CrunchBase Information Exclusively.in Information provided by CrunchBase
 
What Can You Do On Blekko That You Can't Do On Google? (TCTV) Top
We recently brought Blekko CEO Rich Skrenta into our office to talk about why his company’s recent attempt to enter a market where two search engines hold 90% of the market share is not completely insane. The prevailing “Blekko is doomed” argument holds that because Google already does search so well, it’s fruitless to for anyone else to bother trying. Granted, it’s hard to imagine a future where people Blekko themselves. But, once you get past the goofy name and syntax, the idea of a category search deserves some exploration. Blekko’s killer feature of being able to search crowdsourced  “Slashtags” shouldn’t be too off putting for any sort of Google power user , but certainly isn’t a Google Killer. Skrenta answers this point by stating that Blekko isn’t trying to kill Google, and that if anything it is trying to kill Ask.com which currently has 4% of the search market share. “We’re cool with being number three,” he told said. Operating under the motto “there is no one-size-fits-all” for search, Skrenta is targeting both early adopters and power users with Blekko, holding that everyone has their own Blekko usecase. After our interview, I asked Skrenta for his top three searches that you could execute on Blekko and not on Google, and they were, in this order: Searching for links to yourself by time i.e. http://www.techcrunch.com/ /link /date Searching for sites in a Google Ad network through an Adsense ID i.e.  techcrunch /adsense And searching for coverage of a certain topic over a certain period of time by a certain media sector, like (to use Skrenta’s example) running a search for initial coverage of Cuil to see if people predicted that it too was doomed cuil/dr=2008/techblogs In accord with his logic, Skrenta’s top three Slashtags are drastically different from my top three. Blekko’s SEO tools are amazing with regards to transparency and the  http://www.techcrunch.com/ /seo search is a gold mine of inbound link data (Any writer or web editor that’s ever had to track links will really appreciate this). I’m also fond of its direct API search features like Deer licking a cat /youtube . And I’m a huge fan of the simplicity of Blekko’s “most recent” category search /date. In fact, I just used the information found in  Foursquare valuation /date to tweet out this pithy attempt at cleverness, “Meg Whitman could have bought Foursquare, and kept the change.” Heh. I know. But it’s the little things that keep you using a search engine. Says Skrenta on Blekko’s longevity, “The more people see the Slashtags the more they will use them, We got a lot of money in the bank [$24 million to be exact]  so we’re not going anywhere.” You can read more about Blekko in “ TechCrunch Review: The Blekko Search Engine Prepares To Launch ” and learn more about how to personalize its features in the demo video below. CrunchBase Information Blekko Information provided by CrunchBase
 
At My Wit's End: Jason Calacanis Threatens To Sue Us Top
Jason Calacanis , our former partner on our TechCrunch50 events, is threatening to sue us. His demand letter and draft complaint are embedded below. In a nutshell, he wants part of the proceeds from our sale to AOL . Calacanis has spent most of the last year saying some of the most ridiculous things about me and about TechCrunch, and I’ve stayed completely silent. Mostly because I knew he just wanted attention, but also because I assumed he’d eventually calm down and move on to doing more productive things. Also, somehow, I still consider him a friend. Now, though, the whole story has to get out. Here it is. A few years ago Jason suggested we put on a conference to give startups a place to launch. None of us liked Demo much, the long standing startup launch conference, because they charged as much as $20,000 to get in. It didn’t seem like they were picking the best startups, it seemed like they were picking startups that could pay up. So we put on an event with Jason in 2007. It went well and was profitable. 2008 was also very successful, but stresses started to show in our business relationship. Our relationship required unanimous decisions. For the most part that worked well, but occasionally Jason would simply veto things we wanted to do. We also noticed that while profits were split 50/50, Jason wasn’t putting much into the event compared to us. Everyone at TechCrunch wanted out of the event, except me. I thought we could work things out. At one point though Jason became so abusive on a phone call that he actually made one of our employees cry. Yes, cry. Among other things, he wouldn’t “approve” some expenses, meaning we could either sue him or just take the loss ourselves. We chose to take the loss. And his most shining moment – he got so drunk the night before the last day of the 2008 conference that he couldn’t show up to be on stage until hours after the event started. I tried to negotiate with Jason after that 2008 event to at least get the economics of the conference in line. We offered him 10% of TechCrunch, a board seat and ongoing profit sharing from our events (even the events that didn’t involve him) to take on ad advisory position going forward. He said he wasn’t interested. By the time our last event in 2009 rolled around things had gotten much worse. Jason became what can only be described as unbalanced and dictatorial, ordering me and everyone else at TechCrunch around, demanding ridiculous things and vetoing decisions on a whim. When Jason really wanted something we found a way to make it work. Most of the time our ideas were simply dismissed out of hand. At the end of the conference I remember Heather Harde, our CEO, saying to me “I’m getting sick of putting on a big conference for Jason Calacanis every year.” We told Jason firmly that it would be our last event. He seemed to accept it, and even announced it . He later said he was joking, but at no time did we ever waver from our position that the event was over. That’s when things turned really bad. When Jason realized we were very serious about ending our relationship with him he began to spread rumors that I was abusing prescription medications. From an email he sent to a number of people, where he suggested an intervention: “His behavior is leading to multiple people to report to me that he is abusing drugs (prescription), that his personal life is getting very dark and that he is in the middle of another nervous breakdown (the second one in a year)…When–not if–he crashes we don’t want to be among the folks who say “we all knew that was going to happen.” We want to be the friends who said “We saw it coming and we did everything we could to help Mike.” Hopefully our intervention results in a soft landing instead of complete self-immolation.” Heather’s comment in an email to me: “I have heard a lot of crazy Mike Arrington concerns in the past, but never has anyone ever suggested drug or alcohol abuse. It’s insanity.” I rarely drink at all any more and until the last couple of months I never took any prescription drugs except antibiotics a few times. Funnily enough the only time I’ve ever “abused” prescription drugs was one time in France a year before that when Jason himself gave me a provigil, telling me it was good for jetlag. It was. I’ve certainly never had a nervous breakdown. This was just Jason’s sick way of threatening us by spreading these rumors. I wrote to him “As far as I can tell, your current position is that we are either going to do the conference together or you are going to start spreading rumors about me having an alcohol and drug problem. You can probably guess what my answer is going to be.” Things were up and down after that. We tried one last time to work with him, offering him 10% of profits of future events for an advisory position. A soft landing, if you will. On March 1 we announced TechCrunch Disrupt in New York, including the format (less launches, more conversations). He got angry over that, and demanded we finally dissolve the TechCrunch50 entity. His attorney drafted an agreement, we negotiated parts of it and signed it. Heather/Mike, After much consideration, I’ve decided to accept that fact that TechCrunch no longer wants to partner with me on the TechCrunch50 conference. As such, we need to take the steps to shut down the 20 LLC entity in which we share ownership. We also need to decide what to do with the assets of the company (i.e. the sponsor lists and relationships, the good will with the judges and speakers, the intellectual property associate with the company, etc). Perhaps the easiest thing to do is just shut down the entity and distribute the assets equally to each partner? This sounds like the best idea, especially since–in my opinion–you’ve already started a competing conference that is clearly (again in my mind) leveraging the IP and goodwill we’ve built over the past three years. I’m assuming that perhaps you will use the good will we’ve built up to sell tickets to some of the same attendees, land the same sponsors and perhaps even use some of the same speakers/companies. Perhaps this has already occurred? Have you guys started talking to the TechCrunch50 sponsors about your Disrupt event? Right now you’re using the Wizehive software, demo pit concept and same prize money for Distrupt (among many other things). It’s obvious to me and many others that Disrupt is TechCrunch50 with a different name and slightly different format. Our joint customers, press people and our partners are asking me to comment on “techcrunch stealing the conference” from me. I haven’t engaged the press out of respect for the good work we did together over the past three years. However, the market is very confused and I’m going to need to respond. From my perspective it’s unnecessary for us to get in a public and/or legal fight. Better we go our separate ways–life is too short, no? My attorney Joey Tran is cced above and can handle shutting down the company, doing a joint release of the IP to both of us and getting us both moved on from the tension of the past six months. This will also put you guys in the clear with regard to your use of the IP in Disrupt, which right now I’m obviously not happy about. In fact, many folks asked me last night if the Disrupt conference was the rebranded TechCrunch50. Very frustrating as you might imagine! Let’s do this quickly, as I would like to start a new conference myself and address the media. It’s been fun being partners for three years and I don’t regret for a minute bringing you guys the idea for TechCrunch50. We did some great work together! In fact, I’m really looking forward to a long, spirited rivalry with you both in the years to come. Let the competition being! all the best, Jason We signed a dissolution agreement and a mutual release of claims, and everything was fine for a while. Jason asked to speak at Disrupt, we accepted. And later when there were (false) rumors of an acquisition, he said he was cheering us on. In June: Thu Jun 17 17:34:55, Think TechCrunch will sell for $20-40M. 3-6x topline revenue would be range. It’s an amazing brand with an amazing leader in @arrington And September: Tue Sep 28 02:41:16, And if @arrington does sell I’m happy for him. He lives an unhealthy lifestyle, doesn’t sleep, and abuses heather–he’s a trainwreck. Confused? Me too. Which is why we ended all communication with him months ago. He’s just bad energy, then good energy, then bad energy, depending on his mood. Now, though, he’s threatening to sue us. Despite the fact that we mutually agreed to dissolve TechCrunch50, release each other of any claims and move on. A few last thoughts. 1. We didn’t kill TechCrunch50, Jason did. He was a terror to work with. He couldn’t keep his own staff around from year to year, and he wouldn’t put enough resources into the event to justify the economics he was getting. Working with him overall was a nightmare, and by the third year we just gave up. Until then, and even after, I tried desperately to make it work somehow. 2. I don’t know where Jason got it into his head that we couldn’t do events unless we partnered with him, or that the format of a conference is somehow proprietary. He certainly did events without us, and we didn’t complain. Way back when we first talked about doing the event, I don’t remember Jason saying anything like “Hey Mike, let’s do an event together. Only, if you do you can never stop or do any other events that involve companies launching, even though I can. And if you do stop, or do a different event, or ever sell TechCrunch, I’m going to call you a sociopath, spread rumors that you do drugs and then sue you.” 3. The spreading of rumors around drug abuse were reprehensible and absurd. 4. His “I love you, I hate you” routine doesn’t show a balanced mind . I don’t even know what to do with “I’ve got nothing bad to say about @arrington. He’s my friend, he treated me like garbage–but that’s business. He will regret it long-term.” 5. We formally and mutually dissolved TechCrunch50 a month and a half after we announced TechCrunch Disrupt. He certainly knew exactly what the format of the new event was. 6. We didn’t start any acquisition discussions with AOL until May 2010, and we didn’t even get to signing an NDA with them (when the real discussions start) until August 2010. We certainly had no immediate plans to sell TechCrunch when we were dissolving TechCrunch50. And when false rumors surfaced later that we were selling, he cheered us on publicly. 7. If Jason wanted stock in TechCrunch he should have asked for it at some point, or taken our offer in 2008. 8. If he sues us, we’ll fight, and he’ll lose. And we are certainly going to explore a countersuit for defamation. 9. TechCrunch Disrupt without Jason has been a smashing success with higher revenue, higher attendance and much better speakers than TechCrunch50. The show is about the audience and the startups. It used to be mostly about Jason. 10. And now, of course, the circus begins. PS – for our newer readers, I know this is way inside baseball. But we have a longstanding policy of posting every legal threat (and there have been some doozies ). View this document on Scribd
 
Urban Airship Closes $5.4 Million Funding Round To Help Power Mobile Apps Top
Urban Airship , a startup that makes it easier for mobile app developers to offer push notifications, in-app purchases, and other key features, has closed a new $5.4 million funding round. The Series B round is being led by Foundry Group, with existing investors True Ventures and Founders Co-op also participating. Foundry Group’s Managing Director Jason Mendelson will be joining Urban Airship’s board. At a high level, Urban Airship lets mobile developers take advantage of popular (and powerful) features seen on modern mobile platforms like iOS and Android, without having to reinvent the wheel for each app. These services include managing push notification campaigns across apps running on multiple platforms (there’s support for Android, BlackBerry, and iOS). So far, the company says it has distributed over 1 billion messages. Urban Airship also offers functionality related to monetization, including ever-popular in-app purchases. The most recent addition to Urban Airship’s feature-set is support for subscriptions, which are sure to play an important role for publishers in the coming years. The startup  powers the subscriptions seen on the recently-released Newsweek iPad application, which is the the first iPad periodical to feature them (don’t be surprised if more publishers turn to the startup to power their subscriptions). Other clients include Tapulous, LivingSocial, and Gowalla. Urban Airship previously closed a $1.1 million funding round in February, so this brings their total funding to $6.5 million. CrunchBase Information Urban Airship Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Facebook Tests Smaller Font In News Feed, Users Retaliate On Twitter Top
We noticed a small change tonight on Facebook’s news feed: the font seems to have become smaller. It’s unclear how much the size was adjusted but it looks like the change is significant enough that it drew user attention as soon as the font was tweaked. Unsurprisingly, many members took to Twitter to vent about the smaller font, complaining that the new size is difficult to read. It’s a small adjustment but the majority of Tweets about the change seem to be negative so Facebook may not be keeping the new, smaller font for long. What do you think about the new font size? Love it or hate it? CrunchBase Information Facebook Information provided by CrunchBase
 
As Polls Close, Foursquare Reaches 50K Voting Venue Check-Ins Top
In conjunction with the mid-term elections held today, Foursquare launched its “I Voted” campaign which tracked check-ins at polling places throughout the day and evening. In preparation for the day, Foursquare loaded over 100,000 voting locations into its venue database. If users included a ‘#ivoted’ in their check-in, they received a special badge for the day. And Foursquare partnered with data visualization startup JESS3 to create a live, interactive map of each check in at polling sites. Just after the close of polling venues on the West Coast, Foursquare had clocked 49,478 check-ins from voters across the country (It looks like this number is slowly increasing). California and New York led the pack with check-ins with 7,274 and 5,988 checkins respectively. In total, 58 percent of check-ins came from women and 42 percent came from men. Foursquare users checked into a total of 23,382 polling venues. While this is Foursquare’s first big election since launch, the startup is using the election platform has a guinea pig of sorts to develop a scalable system for the 2012 Presidential Election in a few years. To put this in perspective, Facebook’s Randi Zuckerberg just Tweeted that over 11 million members declared that they voted on the social network today. Facebook encouraged members to use an interactive feature today which allows you to find polling place on the U.S. Politics Page and click the “I Voted” button to tell your friends you voted. According to the counter at the time of this post, 11.6 million Facebook members had voted in the election. CrunchBase Information Foursquare Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Voters Weigh Suspension Of Air Pollution Law, As California Reveals Cap-And-Trade Plans Top
Just ahead of today’s midterm election, California regulators established a preliminary model for a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade system . The system is intended to help the state control industrial greenhouse gas emissions in aggregate in adherence with its progressive, controversial AB32 air pollution law which legislature passed there in 2006. Currently, California requires reporting by (and third-party verification of) facilities and companies that emit 25,000 tons of greenhouse gases or more each year. Originally, AB32 laid out plans to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from industrial sectors and electricity by 25% by the year 2020 restoring them to 1990 levels. Fuel suppliers would come under the air emissions “cap” in 2015. The program would begin to take effect in 2012, with the California Air Resources Board (ARB) monitoring and enforcing the law. The midterm election results in California will determine if AB32 remains on course. Proposition 23 on the state’s ballot would suspend the air pollution control law until unemployment in the state drops to 5.5% or less for a full year. Many cleantech entrepreneurs and institutional investors want AB32 to proceed, as its enforcement could accelerate the uptake of their companies’ services and products, and help the country maintain a leadership role in the global, cleantech market. Environmentalists believe that AB32 could help the state and its residents potentially save as much as they spend to achieve better air quality and energy efficiency; and that it would create green jobs for the region. California is working with other Western states and Canada to devise a wider, regional cap-and-trade system. Meanwhile, Proposition 23 supporters — who seek to suspend AB32— believe that enforcing the strict air pollution controls now will reduce California's gross state product enough to choke billions of dollars out of the state each year, perpetuating high unemployment ; that the air pollution law would cause an increase in the cost of public services, especially transportation; and that there are better ways for California to combat environmental problems. The cap-and-trade system’s preliminary design allows companies that operate well within the state’s emissions limits to opt-in, initiate reporting and begin selling their offsets to polluters. A full banking and trading system, it would also allow companies to make up for some of their carbon emissions through programs like planting trees, or destroying ozone depleting substances. A sample scenario: a company that emits 100 tons of greenhouse gases in a year, once the controls are in place, would be allowed to emit 90 a year by the state, but would make up for the rest by reducing two to ten tons through improved operations, and up to eight tons through other programs outside of the cap. The following gases are covered by California’s law and system: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), and other fluorinated greenhouse gases. Some industries will have to adapt more quickly and others will be given a bit more leeway should AB32 escape suspension. A Scientific American feature story on the trading system yesterday explained: The system will cover 85% of the state’s industrial emissions by the time it ends in 2020. At the outset of trading, in 2012, industrial sources and electricity generators and suppliers responsible for more than 25,000 tons of CO2 per year will be covered; in 2015, it will expand to cover transportation fuels and fuels combusted at industrial, residential and commercial buildings that are not otherwise covered directly. The cap is being set at business-as-usual levels for 2012 and will decline linearly after that, except to include transportation fuels in 2015 at their anticipated business-as-usual level… Oil and gas extraction and paper, glass, cement, lime, iron and steel manufacturing are among the industries that California has decided to protect the most by giving them 100 percent of their allowances through 2020. Food producers, sawmills, breweries and pesticide and clothing manufacturers are among those in the second tier, receiving 100 percent at the outset but ratcheting down to 50 percent by 2018. Medicine and aircraft makers are in the bottom category, with 30 percent of their emissions burden covered by the end… Image: L.A. and smog from the air by Scazon
 
WITN: It's Tuesday so it must be Jakarta Top
Sarah's latest whistle-stop tour of emerging markets has reached Indonesia, where she'll be covering – and helping with – a start-up competition. But before all the excitement kicks off, she called in from Skype to explain the differences between Singapore (her previous stop) and Jakarta. Video below.
 
KissInsights: Gather Customer Feedback Exactly When You Want It Top
Over the summer, we saw the launch of KissMetrics , a service that lets website owners optimize their sites using conversion tunnel tools that let you determine exactly where in your signup flows users are dropping off. But KissMetrics founder Neil Patel says that there’s one more piece to the puzzle: KissMetrics can track quantitative data, but it doesn’t do anything as far as qualitative data. That’s where KissInsights comes in. The service has some similarities to GetSatisfaction and UserVoice in that it asks users to express their opinions about the site. But there are a few key differences: first, everything on KissInsights is private — Patel thinks it’s a bad idea to expose your customer feedback to competitors (GetSatisfaction doesn’t have a private setting; UserVoice will allow you to restrict the visibility of your feedback forums to customers, but it’s possible that your competitors will simply sign up for your service to get access). The second key difference for KissInsights involves the way users actually leave their responses.   KissInsights is all about context — it allows site owners to display a popup prompt when a user hits a certain portion of a webpage. For example, if you’re tweaking your signup flow and are concerned that a certain section is confusing, you can display a popup survey just as users are working through that section of the site. You can also target these surveys at specific sets of users. Installing the service is simple, requiring one snippet of Javascript on your site — from after adding it you can tweak your surveys from the KissInsights dashboard, without having to adjust your website’s source. Patel says that during the KissInsights beta period it’s seen strong engagement with users, with an overage of over 40 customer responses. This is a standalone product from KissMetrics (in other words, if you want both the company’s products and you’ll need to pay for them separately). KissInsights offers a free package with basic functionality; the full service runs $30/month, with a discount if you sign up for a year at a time. CrunchBase Information KISSmetrics Information provided by CrunchBase
 

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